Left Behind
by SillySilenia
Summary: Draco Malfoy has just returned from his first year at Hogwarts, causing Narcissa to look back on her own youth as one of the Black Sisters. Written for The Black Sisters Prompt Competition. One-shot.


****Disclaimer: ****No copyright infringement is intended. This work is intended to be _Fan_fiction, which means I am a fan. In other words, I do not own the rights to Harry Potter or anything connected to it. No profit is being made from this work.

**Summary:** Draco Malfoy has just returned from his first year at Hogwarts, causing Narcissa to look back on her own youth as one of the Black Sisters.  
>Written for The Black Sisters Prompt Competition. My prompt was 'renewed'. <strong><br>**

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><p><strong>Left Behind<br>**

It was the second day of the summer holidays. Yesterday, Draco returned from Hogwarts for the summer after his first year. It had been the first time in several months that Narcissa saw her son. While they were glad to see each other, it was not a tearful reunion. Draco had no siblings he hadn't seen for months – just his parents. While it _had_ been a long time since they had seen each other, it was different to be away from your parents for a while than it was to be away from a sibling. Besides, he had written her weekly.

She remembered the first time she had been waiting at King's Cross station all too well, waiting for her eldest sister to come home, glad to finally see her again. She remembered how much she had missed her.

Narcissa had always been the youngest sister. The one that almost no one paid attention to, and if they did, she rarely was more to them than _the youngest sister_. The youngest sister of Bellatrix. The younger sister of Andromeda. The youngest Black sister. Only her sisters were different. They never overlooked her.

Andromeda might have forgotten, or simply moved on, and Bellatrix did at least pretend to have, but Narcissa remembered the promise they had made to each other as children all too well.

_To always help each other, to always be there for each other, to stay together no matter what._

Part of Narcissa had been jealous of her sisters, and yet she had felt awful for it. Bellatrix and Andromeda were her _sisters_. The only ones that _didn't _overlook her. The ones that _always_ were there for her. It had taken her a while, but she had managed to squash her jealousy.

The first few years, before any of the Black Sisters went to Hogwarts, they renewed the promise every few months. When the eldest sister went to Hogwarts, they still renewed it every summer and winter during the holidays. Always on the second day of the holiday.

Narcissa had hated not seeing her eldest sister every day anymore, but at least she wasn't alone. Her other sister was still there, still with her.

Jealousy had tried to rear its ugly head as Narcissa thought of how her eldest sister was making friends of her own, how it no longer was just the three of them – but she had once again managed to squash her jealousy.

By the time that both Andromeda and Bellatrix had been at Hogwarts, the renewal of their promise had been reduced to only once a year – the second day of the summer holidays.

It was the first time that Narcissa had been without both Bellatrix and Andromeda for more than a few days. She hated feeling lonely. She hated being the youngest sister, and thus being left behind. The last to go to Hogwarts.

Finally, Narcissa had gone to Hogwarts as well, but by then, she and her sisters had started to drive apart. The promise was no longer renewed. Andromeda and Bellatrix both had their own friends and while they tried to include her, she felt that they did so more for her than because they themselves longed for her presence.

Then Andy – no, she corrected herself, _Andromeda, _for Andy had been her _sister's_ nickname, and Andromeda no longer was a sister of hers – had left with Ted Tonks, bringing dishonour to the Ancient and Noble House of Black. Narcissa knew _that_ what Andromeda had done was wrong, knew _why_ it was wrong...

...and yet her jealousy was renewed. Andromeda, who could, with her nice and outgoing personality, have gotten almost anyone, chose for a muggleborn, a mudblood. She had had the courage to make her own choice – courage that Narcissa was well aware _she_ would never have.

Although her jealousy was renewed, hope bloomed within her as well. Hope that she would no longer be overlooked, now that the Black Sisters had been reduced to two, now that the purebloods attempting to court Andromeda for her bloodlines and her family's influence had to look for someone else. Hope that_ she_ might be that someone else.

It was the first time that she had experienced hope that had felt so _wrong_.

While before Andromeda left, Narcissa and Bellatrix had started to drive apart, the betrayal of their former sister had caused them to grow close again. They never renewed the promise, for it made them think of _her_ betrayal. It simply hurt too much. Narcissa knew that it was the same for Bellatrix as it was for her, even if her behaviour seemingly told otherwise.

It was a way of coping with it. Bellatrix had had a faster response, but it had not taken long before Narcissa learnt to cope with it in a similar way. It would, after all, not do to be seen missing a _bloodtraitor_ – for that was what Andromeda was. Mourning her betrayal was acceptable, mourning her absence was not.

Hiding her emotions behind a mask had not stopped Narcissa from feeling them. Still did not stop her from feeling them. She knew that Bellatrix had in the end managed to squash all emotions for Andromeda. Had managed to squash them like Narcissa had once, back in the days when she still had two sisters, managed to squash her jealousy.

Now Bellatrix had been convicted and sent to Azkaban for life, leaving her behind. It may have been for a proper cause, but it felt like betrayal nonetheless. Andromeda had left them behind for love – Bellatrix had left her behind for hatred caused by Andromeda's betrayal. For while Bellatrix had never been fond of muggles and mudbloods, Narcissa knew that this absolute, destructive and almost unnatural hatred towards them was spurred by the hatred Bellatrix felt for one specific muggleborn. Ted Tonks, the muggleborn that had stolen away their sister.

Narcissa was once again left behind. She now had a family of her own, but the loss of her other sister hurt no less than Andromeda's betrayal had.

Once, the second day of the summer holidays had been a time when the three of them renewed their promise. Now it was the day when Narcissa mourned for the promise that had been broken and for the sisters that had left her behind.


End file.
